Shaking Hands with Interviewers – The Secrets

We all know that first impressions count during your interview, this short article will help you realise what your handshake reveals to the employer.

When being introduced to the interviewer, you will more often then not be committed to a handshake; a handshake is a quick gesture to say “Hello I’m here, I’m professional and I’m ready for the interview” this two second introduction will give the employer their first impression about you and set’s the tone for the rest of the interview.

If you believe in the power of handshakes or not, your handshake is expected and often unconsciously tells the employer a little about your character, employers will often be prejudice and make an opinion about you from your initial handshake.

Research has shown that a handshake like other body language signals gives interviewers an unconscious idea about a person’s personality and a firm handshake is more likely to help gain you a job offer, then a limp handshake.

By now, you have started to read this article on handshaking, you are starting to become more aware of how the unconscious mind picks up on non verbal language and how this can affect your interview, you can learn more about non verbal language and interviews in our secrets of employment e-book, down load it today and increase your chances of gaining job offers.  

 

  • What the Handshake means?  

    If your Palm is facing up this can be taken as a sign of submission

    A palm facing down can be taken as aggressive

    While a palm facing sideways is taken as an equal

    If someone uses the Palm Facing down handshake (aggressive) You can counter this by putting your second hand on top of their hand and slowly turning there Palm up (this needs lots of practicing for it to look natural)

 

Employers will probably not remember the handshake itself, they remember the unconscious image they create of you from the handshake, just like our body language gives non verbal clues, and so does our handshake.

What makes a good handshake? A firm grip, eye contact and an up-and-down movement.

Common Handshake Mistakes

The Bone Crusher – don’t turn a handshake into a competition to see who is the strongest  

The Long Handshake – often a nervous interviewee will be pre-occupied with making a good impression and overcoming their nervous they forget to let go of the interviewer’s hand.


Sweaty Palm – again this one can often happen to nervous interviewees, the more nervous we become the more we sweat, remember to sneakily wipe your hands before the handshake.  

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Improving Your Communication Skills at work

Good communication is the essential to:

  • Increasing your chances of gaining a promotion.
  • Helping you effectively get your point across at meetings
  • Influencing your mangers decision makings
  • Getting on with colleagues and managers

 

Good communication is essential in all areas of your life, especially at work. If you fail to communicate well, you can often be left behind while others move up the career ladder.

Use Good Communication Skills to Pass Interviews

Effective communicators have the power to influence meetings and conversations, without others realising. Confidence and self belief grows as you learn to communicate to others with greater levels of success.

One of the first lessons to improve your communication skills is to listen to other peoples language, we generally converse using one of the following language patterns:

  • Visual,
  • Auditory
  • Kinaesthetic

 

Once you can recognise a person’s VAK language pattern, you can use their language to communicate more effectively with them.

Learn which VAK learning style you have?                                                                    

How does this work?

As we hear words, our brain quickly  uses these words to  create images in our mind and the image creates emotions in our body.

If I tell you to think of a dog, you may picture an old pet and this may bring about happy childhood memories that make you feel happy as you begin to reminisce whereas the same instruction for another person may provoke more negative feelings as a memory of a dog attack is recalled.

Depending on our own individual persuasion Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic verbal patterns can be used in order to influence and alter the strength of these emotions.

# We all use all 3 types of language (V, A and K) but most people have a persuasion towards one most strongly.

  • If you’re Auditory, words such as Sound, Noise, Volume, Tune, Pitch, & phrases such as “..Will help to get your bell ringing.”

 

  • For Visual people words such as Image, Overview, Sketch, Fade, Haze, & phrases such as “..Will help you create better picture.”  

 

  • and for Kinaesthetic words such as Touch, Feeling, Temperature, Cold, Gut Feeling, Weight & phrases such as “..help you have a feel for the situation.”

 

As an example, if you were to asked someone about a recent holiday they may respond with:

V “It was a Bright idea to get away, the views from the hotel were so picturesque!

A “I was in tune with the relaxing sound of the sea, it left me absolutely speechless.”

K “It felt good to get away from work and recharge my batteries 

Once you have diagnosed a person’s language pattern you can used their VAK language pattern to improve the power of your conversation, by communicating using their language.

Think back to a time when a conversation or meeting did not go well no matter what you said. When it just seemed that no matter how much you explained things the other person just couldn’t seem to understand your point. This can happen when one person communicates using a language pattern with someone, who has a difference preference. By changing your language to match the other persons, you will quickly see better results as the other person quickly grasp what it is you are trying to get across.

Practice makes perfect with this one, first spend time listening to peoples language and then change your language to match theirs and notice the difference it makes with rapport building, influencing and communication. This works well during job interviews, for hints and tips on improving your interview technique, VAK in Interviews and how Your Personality Type can influence your career choice, follow this link: Secrets of Employment.

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How to Write a Personal Statement for a Job Application Form

job application form

How to Write a Personal Statement 

This article will quickly explain how to complete the Personal Statement section in a job application form, for more tips on completing job application forms click the link.

Many companies use a PDF down-loadable job application form on their website or more commonly an online application form. Large organisations have ‘career accounts’ allowing an applicant to save application forms to be used for other job vacancies.

interview prediction grid

What to add to the personal statement?

Throughout the job application form, you will be able to add your contact details, past employment history, and your qualifications, so they do not need to be added (and repeated) within the personal statement.

Most job specifications that accompany the job application form tell you in detail, what requirements the employer is looking to be evidenced on the job application form and the importance the employer places on each job criteria.

Example Job Specification:

Factor Essential Desirable Measured
Experience
  • Experience of leading a team
  • Understanding every child matters regulations
  • Experience of writing management reports
Application Form/Interview
Qualification
  • NVQ level 3 or equivalent  in Child Care
  • NVQ Level 4 or equivalent in Management
Application Form

As you can see some job requirements are essential and MUST BE EVIDENCED in your personal statement, while other job requirements are desirable – if you possess them add them to the application form as the additional reference to the ‘desirable’ criteria can increase the possibility of a job interview. 

With most job specifications the employer will tell you when they will assess each job criteria; during the job interview or within the job application form.

Application Form Layout

The whole of the application should be easy to read, if you need to add additional pages to the paper-based application form, add them and make a note (and give a reference number to each individual page)  in the application form so an employer does not miss this vital information.

For online job application forms, the text box should be formatted to allow additional text. If not check if there is a maximum word count on the job specification document.

Always complete a spell and grammar check, if possible ask someone else to check your application form for you.

Use headings to split up your text; the essential criteria requirements make the best headings. If you do not like to use headings follow a format so information is not missed or duplicated throughout the job application form.

train to be a life coach

How to Sell Yourself in the Personal Statement. 

Start with an opening paragraph; a mini summary that can highlight your best strengths and skills in 4-5 lines. For ideas ask yourself these 3 questions:

  • What is your key message you want to convey to the employer?
  • What are your 3 main strengths relevant to the job role?
  • How would the company benefit from hiring you?

The opening paragraph must intrigue the employer, encouraging them to read your personal statement in more detail.

Avoid writing general information such as “I’m a good team player” write how your experience has made you a good team player, stories work well in personal statements.

Ensure every paragraph you write is relevant to at least one of the essential criteria from the job specification.

Remember, you have to prove to the employer that you understand the job role, duties and industry. The best way to prove you possess this knowledge is to record that you have completed the essential criteria in a past role.

Feeling tired? Take a break and grab a bite to eat, don’t make mistakes due to tiredness; in most cases, you will have several weeks to complete the application form.

Make your statement interesting; if you were reading the statement would you want to carry on?

  • Keep the statement positive – use examples 
  • Use enthusiastic and assertive language – replace ‘tried’ to ‘succeed’ 
  • Highlight your strengths and key skills – think about your unique selling point 

At the end of the personal statement, write a brief summary of why you have applied for this role, what has made you pick this particular role and/or organisation?

job interview coaching

Once you have completed your application form.

Re-write your application 2 more times, each time edit your statement, deleting negative language and adding more positive stories; you want this statement to be the best it can be, ensuring you get a guaranteed interview.

Imagine you’re the interviewer, really visualize yourself as the person who is going to read your job application form, get into their mind and even sit how you think the interviewer would sit.

Read the application form, from the interviewer’s eyes, remember the interviewer has never met you and only knows what you have recorded about yourself.

As the interviewer, did the “you” on the application form come across well? Do you feel the application form has mentioned all your strengths’? Will the interviewer want to interview you, now they have read the application form?

Ask Yourself:

  • What have you missed from the application form, which needs to be added?
  • Double-check the job specification, have you highlighted all the essential criteria in your personal statement?
  • Is there anything else you can do to improve the application form?

Now you have a completed application form, an application form that really highlights your strengths and skills, you are probably really proud of this application form, especially after all the hard work you have put into it.

Keep a copy of this completed application form as you can use this draft copy as a basis for all your future job application forms.

When writing a new application form, copy and paste the statement from your original application into your new one, edit each new application/profile to make it relevant to this new position and company, this will save you a large amount of time.

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How to Job Search with Twitter

Job searching on social networking sites continues to grow with Twitter and Facebook taking the Lions Share of the social networking sites traffic.

Many of us now have a Twitter account on our PC and/or Phone (job searching on the move), if you’re not a tweeter set up a Twitter Account today.

You can use twitter in several ways, as a job search tool or as a way to share your knowledge and expertise with employers, encouraging employers to recruit you.

A Careers Advisor can help you increase your job searching.                         

Twitter Job Searching                                                                                

First, using the Twitter search engine search for:                                      

#jobs                                                                                                             

#jobsearch                                                                                                                

#hiring                                                                                                                            

From this you will gain a list of job vacancies, you can even search more specifically;

#accountantjobs                                                                                                   

#Managerialjobs                                                                                                      

#governmentjobs                                                                                                  

You can use any industry, job title or company name to search for vacancies. Through this search you will find tweeters who tweet specific “industry” jobs or “all job industry” vacancies. If these tweets interest you, you can follow these tweets and receive up to date tweets and jobs.  

While job searching add your favorite jobs/tweets to favorites box, so you don’t forget about them.

You will be amazed by the amount of jobs that are advertised on twitter, use twitter alongside other job search engines to maximize your job searching.  

Inside Information for Job Applications

Once you have found a vacancy you are interested in, search for people working in the organization you are looking to apply for. You may find tweets from the company (companies use twitter to promote their image, services and products) Employees and Managers.

Follow these tweets, discreetly if needed and gain insights into the company polices, mission, history, new contracts and gossip – all which potentially could be useful during your application and interview.  

Under an alias you could message the employees asking for information, updates and interview tips.

Tweet Yourself

You can also use Twitter as a self promotional tool, set up a new twitter account and add a professional photo in the background. On your profile, add that you are looking to gain employment, how many years experience you have and a little bit about yourself.

Learn the Secrets of finding Employment today.

From this you can tweet information about your experience, your industry knowledge, give industry advice and news updates.

After a while people will start to see your tweets (and re-tweet them) showing you as an industry expert, employers will see you have in-depth knowledge, qualifications, expertise and may offer you an interview of the back of your tweets.

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Using NLP to Reduce your Negativity before an Interview

Using NLP to Reduce your Negativity before an Interview

 

You’re getting ready for your interview, feeling good then all of a sudden a voice in your head says “Your rubbish, you won’t pass this interview” or “how did you get an interview? You can’t even do this job”

Automatically this inner negative voice makes you feel like rubbish, the fear soon follows as your stomach feels like a great big dark hole. You start asking yourself “should I even bother attending this interview?”

 

 

 

Does this sound common to you? If it does, the following exercise will quickly and efficiently change how the inner voice affects you.

First you need to be aware that when we hear a voice in our head or as we create an image in our mind, the image or voice automatically creates a feeling; a negative voice or image creates a negative feeling and a positive voice or image creates a positive feeling.

Try it now; think of your last holiday, create an image of this picture and make it big and bright – if you feel good, your image was probably a positive image of your holiday, remembering all the good times, if you feel sad or negative the picture you can see probably resembles all the negative stuff that happened on your holiday.

How to get rid of your negative voice before an interview:

 

You may find it helpful to first read the exercise before trying it.

Let’s go back to the voice, recall this negative voice and as you hear the voice (this voice needs to sound like your voice, there is a different technique for a voice that sounds like someone else’s) notice, where the voice is? Is it on the left or the right hand side of your head? In the front or the back of your mind?

How loud is the voice? Normal, softer or louder – become aware of what make this voice negative?

If you could turn this voice into a shape, what shape would it be? A square, Triangle, Circle or any other shape? What shape is your voice? If you can’t turn the voice into a shape, imagine you were someone who could turn the voice into a shape – what is your shape is your voice?

What colour is your shape? Is the shape in the same place the voice was?

Slowly move the shape away from your head, down towards your shoulder, how does it feel now – most say it feels less powerful, amazing hey?

Allow the shape to move from your shoulder down your arm towards your elbow, how does it feel now, is the negative emotion vanishing? Yes?

Let the shape, continue further down from your elbow to your hand, notice how your negative emotions losses strength the future down the shape go’s, move the shape to your leg, at its own speed allow the shape to drop down from your leg to your knee – how does it feel now? Less powerful?

Move it from your knee to your foot, is the negative feeling vanishing?  With the shape on your foot, how do you feel, more positive?

Finally allow the shape to fall onto the floor – what do you want to do to the shape? Kick it away? Stamp on it? Put it under your chair?

Move the shape so you can’t see it, now how do you feel, have all the negative emotions vanished? Most said they vanished along time ago. How easy and amazing is this exercise?

  • Try this exercise 3 times and notice how it get’s easier and quicker to remove the negative voice each time you try it.

 

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Company Benefits

When deciding to take an offer of employment the company ethos, values and mission are highly important as these must meet your own values and beliefs; for most the salary is also a high priority.

A Life Coach can help you match a career to your values and beliefs

If you feel the salary does not meet your expectations and this can no longer be negotiated, check the company benefits before turning down an offer of employment.

With many companies the additional benefits they offer can save hundreds of pounds on your personal outgoings giving you an overall higher amount of free money.

Example:

If your earned; a £30,000 Salary and your personal overheads were £12,000 £30,000 – £12,000 = £18,000 (Free Money)

Compared to a Salary of £27,000 minus your Personal Overheads of £6,000; £27,000 – £6,000 = 21,000 A rise of £3000

Example two initially pays less, but if the company benefits bring down your overheads you can be left with a higher overall amount of free money

Write a list of all your personal overheads; Mortgage, Food, Car Insurance, GYM Membership, Life Insurance, Etc and how much each overhead cost you each month.

 

Overhead Cost per Month
  • Mortgage
  • Gym membership
  • Etc
  • £600
  • £250
  • Etc
  •  

Now look at the company benefits, what benefits they offer that you already spend money on? Check the company benefits and highlight any savings on your list.

Add up the list of potential savings and see if this makes a significant difference? Then ask yourself has this difference made a big enough difference for you to take the offer of employment?

Below is a list of common company benefits that will often save you hundreds of pounds. Remember each company is different, some companies offer many benefits while offers offer none at all.  

Health insurance – The Company will often pay for your health or life insurance; you need to check the extent of the coverage? Do they cover Dental or glasses, etc?

Pension Plan – How much does the company add to your pension plan?

Insurance – What insurance is offered; Car (this could be a massive yearly saving), Travel, Laptop etc

Car – Do you have yearly access to a company car; check if you can use the car during weekends and holidays

Travel – Does the company pay for Petrol and Travel Fair; check how much per mile. Will this new role save you money on your daily travel?

Child Care/Crèche – Does the company have an onsite crèche or offer subsidized child care  

Gym and Leisure Pass – Does the company GYM offer the same facilities as your GYM?

You may also gain additional income from:

Bonuses – What is the company bonus system, how achievable is their bonus system. Some companies also give away prizes such as holidays.

Stocks – You may be given free company stocks or offered stocks instead of a bonus

Relocation Cost – If required to relocate will the company pay the relocation cost?

Additional:

Training – if you are looking at gaining new qualifications, will the company fund these? If so how much is their training budget per person.

Working Hours – How many hours per month do you work; compare these to your current role.

Overtime – what is the company overtime rate, are you offered guaranteed overtime?

Leave – How much leave can you take, do the company have any rules towards leave. Do you gain additional leave over Christmas?

 Public Holidays – do you have to work public holidays, if so do you gain overtime for these days?

Sick Leave – what are the company policies on sick leave?

You need to be happy with the company benefits and salary before you accept the job offer, when offered a position, be confident enough to ask questions around the company benefits.  

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Careers Advice in Manchester

Careers Advice in Manchester

Employment King has helped thousands of job seekers to gain career success with our highly successful career and interview coaching progamme.

We believe that everyone deserves to receive a job offer in a sector they are passionate about and skilled in. Career Advice  can help you achieve your career dreams.

Career advice and interview coaching sessions are delivered virtually by a trained coach.

Interview Coaching Sessions.

Choose one of three programmes:

Interview Coaching Session: Upgrade Your Interview Skills.

1 Session

  • Attend a mock job interview with an interview coach.
  • Professional feedback focusing on the strength of your interview answers.
  • Gain personalised interview advice and tips to take your job interview to the next level.

The upgrade session is best suited for career professionals who know they should be gaining job offers but, due to their interview skills, fail to secure offers of employment.

One session lasting 60 minutes, delivered online.

Interview Coaching Session: Interview Boost.

Two interview coaching sessions:

Session 1 – focuses on sector-related interview questions and how to deliver high-scoring interview answers.

Session 2 – increases job interview confidence through techniques to help overcome job interview anxiety.

The boost package is two interview coaching sessions that focus on improving the overall performance of an interviewee. Ideal for applicants who fear the job interview process.

Each interview coaching session last 60 minutes per session.

Interview Coaching Session: Interview Reboot.

3 interview coaching sessions that will take your interview skills to a professional level:

Session 1 – Job interview analyst to breakdown an interviewee’s strengths and areas of development, including the structure of the interview answer, confidence level when answering questions and delivering interview presentations, and the likelihood of receiving a job offer.

Session 2 – A focus on creating high-scoring interview answers that reference the job criteria which increases the likelihood of receiving a job offer. Learn about the structure of an interveiw answer, embedding storytelling into job interview answers and how to be seen as highly valuable.

Session 3 – Improve communication in terms of confidence and delivery. This session can be focused on overcoming job interview anxiety, improving confident communication, and how to feel relaxed during the job interview.

Each interview coaching session last 60 minutes per session.

Career Advice Session.

Specialised career by a trained career guidance officer.

Each session will be tailored to the needs and circumstances of the career professional.

Choose 1, 2 or 3 career coaching sessions.

  • Review your workplace values and understand your workplace motivators.
  • Match careers to your personality type. Gain new career ideas.
  • Discuss career and higher educational pathways, job duties and entry routes. Plan your career route.

Each career advice session last 60 minutes per session.

BOOK YOUR ONLINE CAREER ADVICE AND/OR INTERVIEW COACHING SESSION TODAY

Price Plan – no payment required until an agreed date and time for your career advice or interview coaching session has been confirmed.

To book your career advice and interview coaching session, please complete the coaching inquiry form below.

Session Cost

1 x Session Was £299.99

Now Only £99.99

2 X Sessions was £369.99

Now Only £149.99

3 x Sessions was £499.99

Now Only £179.99

    How to Become an Industry Expert

    Industry Expert:

     

    The recent recession has made job hunting more competitive as the amount of applications sent for every advertised job increases. If you’re passionate about your career and the industry you have chosen, you need to become an Industry Expert, having extensive knowledge about your industry, leading companies and the industry jargon employer’s use.

    Being an industry expert increases your chance of gaining an offer of employment, during your application and interview process you can highlight your knowledge and expertise to encouraging them to offer you a contract of employment.

    We spend over a third of our lives in employment, you need to choose a career you are passionate about, by becoming an industry expert you will quickly realise if this industry is the right career move for you. It is often the employees with the extensive knowledge and passion for the job who gain the most promotions. You will quickly realise that becoming an industry expert is easier then you think.

    7 Quick Steps to becoming an Industry Expert:

    1. Use A Search Engine: Open a web search engine such as Google and in the search box write “industry name” and “job profile” example “Web Designer Job Profile.” Once you open a Job Profile, go down to the bottom of the page, as you will find links industry websites such as the sector skills council websites. These websites are valuable and record a large amount of information and can be used to research the industry and future job trends.

    2. Match Your Skills to Your Career: The job profile will also record the job duties and skills and qualities often needed by employers. Highlight the skills and qualities you already possess and the duties you would enjoy undertaking, if you were employed in this role. If you have highlighted at least 80% of these, you have found an industry that you should excel in, as it already matches your personality.

    3. Set up Industry Alerts: Set up Google alerts for “job title” news “job title” industry news and “job tile” industry new contracts. You will start to receive daily news feed, blog articles and website updates on the industry you are interested in applying for.

    4. Twitter: Follow “industry” twitters, to receive industry news feeds, industry job adverts and updates. Set up an “industry” list. After a while Industry twitters will search and add to you. Use twellow to search for twitters by industry. Don’t be afraid to ask twitters questions, twitters love to apply to tweets, they feel special that you have picked them.

    5. Social Network Sites: The social network sites for businesses is growing, join 3 of these such as Linkedin and read industry forums, discussions and join in asking questions around the industry growth and decline and learn the meaning of industry jargon. Set up your online industry profile-this needs to be professional.

    6. Ask Facebook: On facebook search for “friends” under “co-workers” by searching “company name” you can be-friend people working in your industry and then ask them questions or ask them to complete a questionnaire-social networkers are normally keen to respond to this.

    7. Network: Attend industry network events, always dress smart and hand out your business card. This is a great chance to update your industry information and meet industry leaders. Many job hunters have gain offers of employment this way.

    Use a CV Writing Service to write an Industry Targeted CV

    What information do you need to research?

    Local Market Information- LMI; is your industry on the increase or decline? If the industry is on the decline you might need to rethink your career ideas or to move to an area which where the industry is on the rise.

    Which companies have won new contracts- when applying for employment; you need to apply to the companies that win the contacts as it will be these companies who will be recruiting for staff. It sounds obvious but many job hunters will just apply to anyone, this could cost you time if your applying to a company who are reducing their staff.

    Industry jargon-many people fail at interviews, due to the employer talking using industry jargon and the interviewee not understanding the meaning of this.

    How the industry is developing- industries are changing at a fast pace, due to the improvements in technology, it is always positive to show the employer you know how the industry has changed from its original origins and how the industry is going to develop in the future.

    Research the company- before any interview, research the company as you will often be asked the question “what do you know about our company?” research the company history which is often found on the company website.

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    Log that Job

    Keeping a Job Log

    Do you ever find yourself job searching and you come across a vacancy that you THINK you may have already applied for? Does this sometimes stop you from applying for that vacancy?

    Would it be helpful to keep a record of all the vacancies you are interested in and to keep track of the organisations you have applied for both speculatively and from advertised adverts?

    Would it be useful to gain feedback from your applications to help improve your chances of gaining offers of employment from future applications?

    A Job Log, helps you organise your job searching enquires by listing the jobs you have applied for, from this you can easily keep track of the amount of applications you apply for each week – Does this meet your weekly target?

    If you have not been successful a week after each applications closing date or job interview, use your Job Log to follow up each employer to gain feedback.

    Add your feedback to the job log as this will show if you have any common patterns from the employers’ feedback. You can use these patterns to improve your employability skills, helping you gain an offer of employment in the future.

    Other job hunters find meeting with a Careers Advisor quickly increase their chance of gaining employment, from matching you with career ideas, completing mock interviews and offering in-depth careers advice.

     Example JOB LOG

    Date Applied

    Organisation

    Contact Details

    Application method

    Feedback

    Example:

    00/00/0000

    Example Company

    0000 111 2222

    Speculative Letter and CV

    More information needed regarding my Employment History

     

     

     

           
     

     

     

           
     

     

     

           
     

     

     

           

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    How to Plan a Career Change

    How to Plan a Career Change

    People change careers for many reasons; losing interest in their current career, finding new interest, redundancy, company down sizing, wanting less or more responsibility,  whatever the reason if you are planning for a career change, you need to know how to plan.

    Making a career change, for many is a scary thought by following the steps below you will be able to make a much smoother transition. Often we have been brought up with the belief “you have to choice a career for life” in the past this was true, in more recent times this belief is false, as many people have 2-3 successful careers during their lifetime.

    A career change is natural life progression, helping you stay fresh and motivated, as a career coach I would first check why you want a career change? As many people would stay in their current career or organisation if they could male a few minimal changes to their current role. If you know you truly need a career change follow the plan below:

    Wants and Don’t Wants: There are probably good reasons why you want a career change, you might want to get away from something negative or you are aiming for something positive.

    What do you really like doing when you’re at work, what do you hate doing, what excites you and energize you? What’s your passion? What don’t you like about your job role and position?

    Thinking about your current role, write a list under each of the headings below, keep adding to each list until you cant add anything else, then add one more thing, there is always one more, what is yours?

    I have provided some real examples from past clients, to help get you started:

    • Want and Have: Flexible Hours, Creativity, My Own Caseload, Excellent Pay
    • Have and Don’t Want: Long Distance to Travel, Bossy Manager, Constant Interruptions
    • Don’t Have and Want: Personal Development Opportunities, Excitement in my Job, Future Prospects
    • Don’t Have and Don’t Want: to Travel throughout the UK, Lack of Responsibility

     

    Want and Have

    Have and Don’t Want Don’t Have and Want

    Don’t Have and Don’t Want

           

     

    By writing this list, you have now become more aware of your Likes, Dislikes and Wants; ask yourself; Which list did you find easiest to write? Which list did you relate to the most? Which list made you most excited?

    Ask yourself, if you could change or delete some of the Have and Don’t Want, would you still want to change career or would you be happy to stay in the same job?

    Look at your Have and Don’t Want List, re-word each “away from” statement, example “I don’t want constant interruptions when I’m working” to a “towards” statement, example I want to work in a company that allows you to work without interruption”

    You can now move all your new statements from the “Have and Don’t Want” heading to the “Don’t Have and Want”

    Choosing a New Career: Now you are more aware of your likes, wants and don’t wants, turn your page over and in a large circle write Personal Strengths.  Start to record your strengths, skills and qualities as a mind map, mind mapping is a great way to get into the “flow” of writing your personal strengths – this is not a time to be shy, remember all the good things others have said about you and add these to the mind map.

    If you have an idea of the new career you are looking to enter write this Job Title above “personal strengths” go through each strength one by one asking yourself “do I need this skill or strength in my new career?” circle all the transferable strengths you have that you need for your new career.

    You will be surprised by the amount of transferable skills you already possess that are needed for your new career and job position.

    If you’re unsure about which career will suit you, a Careers Advisor can help you match your wants and your personal skills and strengths to different careers. When looking at your new career, you need to check that the job specification and company mission matches your Have and Want and Don’t Have and Want list.

    Training and Education: Now you know which career or sector you have set as your new career goal, you need to check the job profile or job specification, as you may need to re-train or update your knowledge. Some sectors will offer training on the job, other careers will accept the qualifications you already have, while some sectors will require you to gain new qualifications before applying for the job role.

    Experience: You are already aware of your transferrable skills, to gain new skills or to increase your current experience you can volunteer for a position similar to that of your new career goal, this will look positive as part of the job application and it will also give you a better insight to the job role, duties and if this is the right career move for you.

    Networking: Your ability to network is one of the key abilities to changing your career; networking will give you inside industry information making you an industry expert and gives you the upper hand on other job hunters, as you gain job leads, careers information, knowledge of the application process and gaining personal contacts.

    Gain a Mentor: Finding a Mentor can help you with your careers transition and will often give you a real insight into your new career sector. A mentor will often know industry information such as which organisation has won a new contract, taking on new staff.

    Targeted Employability Skills: You need to prepare your CV, Covering Letter, Interview Skills and Application Form, many job hunters fall into the trap of selling the skills needed for their old career – take another look at your transferable skills and new job specification, you need to target yourself to the essential criteria needed for this new career.  

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